Re: Quantum effects [was Re: Macro-massive electronic systems (questions posed)]

...And deeper in the bowels of HTTP, where character sets might be negotiated, 
numbers become pulses and pulses become--wavelike--pieces of an order through 
which the observer effect may realize its fullest potential--if quantum numbers 
exist in only a single place and time.
 
Michael A. Norton
 




________________________________
From: Sean McGrath <sean.mcgrath@propylon.com>
To: Mike Norton <xsideofparadise@yahoo.com>
Cc: MCrompton@iispartners.com; public-egov-ig@w3.org
Sent: Thu, August 5, 2010 10:06:07 AM
Subject: Quantum effects [was Re: Macro-massive electronic systems (questions 
posed)]

Mike Norton wrote:
> 
> Secondly,  if the Observer Effect is to be understood as the change in an 
>object's behavior due to the observation of that object, then is it possible to 
>consider an Observer Effect associated within the realm of machine readable 
>languages on the web?  Does meta-data hold a potential of carrying an Observer 
>Effect upon itself and the data it specifies?  
>
The Observer Effect, in my opinion, applies to most of the worlds "born digital" 
document corpus. Right down in the bowels of HTTP, content is "negotiated" based 
on the observer (the browser) asserting capabilities and a suitable rendering 
being generated in response. Different set of observer capabilities yields a 
different rendering.

As the web has become more and more dynamic (i.e. active page templates of 
various forms), the Observer Effect has kicked up another notch. Nowadays, the 
actual content you get back when you observe a resource via http includes who 
you are, where you are, what you looked at yesterday etc. etc. Two users could 
observe the same resource (e.g. igoogle.com) and get completely different 
content back.

For many applications, it does not matter. In fact, for many applications it is 
a great boon! However, in some areas such as legal materials it matters a great 
deal. More than most folk realize in my experience.

I have written about it here
http://seanmcgrath.blogspot.com/2010/06/xml-in-legislatureparliament_09.html in 
the context of law and law-making.

It may be of interest.

regards,
Sean McGrath